Science Hill right-handed pitcher Caden Wells went the distance and shut down Dobyns-Bennett in the opening round of the District 1-4A baseball tournament.
Wells threw six strikeouts and allowed just three hits and two walks in a 2-0 Hilltoppers over the Indians on Wednesday night at TVA Credit Union Ballpark. The sophomore had multiple pitches working for him over seven innings.
“Fastball, filling up the zone, slider off-speed and getting people off balance,” he said. “I threw the change-up three times I think. I feel like my team counts on me a lot and if they can help me, I can help them.”
He certainly did help the Hilltoppers (28-10) moving forward. They will have a full array of arms when they face Daniel Boone in Thursday’s winners’ bracket contest. Dobyns-Bennett now faces West Ridge in an elimination game.
The fact that Wells threw so well wasn’t a surprise to Science Hill coach Ryan Edwards, who had seen him hold his own against tough competition.
“He had quality starts against T.C. Roberson and Sevier County,” Edwards said. “He had eight strikeouts against a really good lineup with T.C. Roberson. We’ve used him to start and close games this year and he’s done well.”
By going all seven innings, he gave Science Hill’s coaching staff more options the rest of the tournament. Although Wells can’t pitch before Sunday, they have all the other arms available.
“If you pitch back-to-back days, you can’t pitch the next day,” Edwards said. “If I threw someone day and they went tomorrow, they wouldn’t be available Friday. We have to win and that saved everyone else.”
Science Hill got on the scoreboard when Josh Marmo single down the right field line to score Major Osbolt. Osbolt was the game’s offensive leader with a pair of doubles including one in the fifth inning to score Jackson Berry.
The Indians weren’t able to put the timely hits together and have now gone 15 scoreless innings against Science Hill. They had just one serious threat to score when Cam Hayworth led off the second inning with a double and then advanced to third on a sacrifice by Will Ritz. A short flyout followed by a pop-up to Wells ended the inning.
“We’ve struggled getting those back-to-back hits,” Dobyns-Bennett coach Ryan Wagner said. “Offensively, we didn’t do enough and we made a couple of mistakes on the bases. We’re not super explosive so we have to be aggressive and we got picked off a time or two. But at the end of the day, we have to get 2-3 hits in an inning to score some runs.”
Cade Maynor suffered the loss despite a solid outing where he gave up three hits over 4 1/3 innings. Mason Barnett gave up one hit over the next 1 2/3 innings.
“Maynor was great. He kept them off-balance with his breaking ball for strikes,” Wagner said. “His fastball was alive too. We had a plan in place and I would do it again. We put ourselves in a good spot. At the end of the day, we just have to score.”
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